Sandra Milo, Who Had Star Turns in Fellini Films, Dies at 90
She was called Fellini’s muse. She claimed she was his lover. In a long career, she was best known for her performances in his movies “8 ½” and “Juliet of the Spirits.”Sandra Milo, who was best known internationally for her roles in Federico Fellini’s movies “8 ½” and “Juliet of the Spirits” — and whose tumultuous love life churned headlines in Italy — died on Monday at her home in Rome. She was 90.Her children announced the death on her official Facebook page. No cause was given.Ms. Milo’s screen debut, alongside the comic actor Alberto Sordi in “Lo Scapolo” (“The Bachelor”) in 1955, coincided with the golden age of Italian cinema. She went on to work alongside some of Italy’s most famous leading men, including Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman and Vittorio De Sica, and for some of the country’s most renowned directors, including Roberto Rossellini, Dino Risi and later Pupi Avati and Gabriele Salvatores.But her primary claim to stardom was the two films she made with Fellini, with whom, she claimed in a 1982 book, “Caro Federico,” she had an offscreen romance that lasted nearly two decades. Fellini, who died in 1993, never spoke publicly about that claim. The Italian media called her Fellini’s muse.Ms. Milo and Fellini on the set of “Juliet of the Spirits” in 1965. She played the free-spirited next-door neighbor of the film’s protagonist, played by Fellini’s wife, Giulietta Masina.Pierluigi Praturlon/Reporters Associati & Archivi, via Mondadori Portfolio, via Getty ImagesFellini, who fondly called Ms. Milo “Sandrocchia,” had also wanted her to play the role of the glamorous Gradisca in his semi-autobiographical 1973 film, “Amarcord,” but, she told interviewers, her husband at the time had objected because he knew she was fond of Fellini.“He knew I loved him,” she said in a 2019 documentary about her life.She also said she knew that the production would take her away from her children. “Am I first a woman, or first a mother?” she mused in the documentary. “Maybe I am first a mother, so I didn’t do it.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
